FAQ

1 I'd like to be a football reporter. How do you find out more about a career in journalism?

First of all, be realistic. You have to start from the bottom in a newspaper and the cub reporters don't often get asked to cover Premiership football matches! That said, if you have a real enthusiasm for writing and for sport, it's a healthy ambition. The first stage is to get all the examination grades you can and try to get some work experience with your local paper. There are also college and university courses in journalism that your careers teacher can tell you about.

2 I've written some football poems. Where can I publish them?

Go online. There are some excellent sites for would-be football poets, so go to www.footballpoets.org for a start. Here's one from the internet to show you how good you need to be:

When My Dad Watches Football, by Grace, aged 9, from West Midlands, England.

When my dad watches football he cheers for his team,
He thinks he was a footballer. Yeah! In his dreams.
When my friends come round and he's watching football he shouts OFFSIDE! OFFSIDE!
I feel like going to a hole jump in and hide.
There are footballs all in our home,
There's even one on our garden gnome.
It's football this and football that,
There's even a football on our welcome mat.
But I still love my dad,
Even though he's football mad.

To find this one and more, go to www.storiesfromtheweb.org

3 Where can I find more about Kes and Dream Team?

Your local bookshop, and your English teacher, will have copies of Kes or A Kestrel for a Knave by Barry Hines. Your local library may well have a videotape of the film version as well. 'Dream Team' is currently on Sky Television. Go to google.com and do an internet search - "dream team sky television" - to find other fans. Alternatively, there is lots of information and a forum at http://network54.com/Browse/Entertainment/Television/Forums. Try www.amazon.co.uk and search to find 'Dream Team' for sale on video. Remember, never disclose personal details in discussion forums.

4 Where can I find out more about Ian McMillan?

Ian has his own website, so go to www.uktouring.org.uk/ian-mcmillan. He is also available to visit schools.

5 Who are the people talking about leadership in these programmes?

Here's the list and the jobs they were doing when the programme was made:

Peter Reid, Manager Sunderland
John Barnes, Television pundit (ex-Liverpool and England)
Gareth Southgate, Aston Villa and England
George Burley, Manager Ipswich Town
Edward Hall, Director, Royal Shakespeare Company
William Houston, Actor, Royal Shakespeare Company

6 How can you study Henry V through football?

There are many parallels between football and theatre. Here's what Edward Hall of the Royal Shakespeare Company says in the programme.

'Theatre's a game of two halves, football's a game of two halves. You have two acts with an interval in between. When you rehearse a play you go through the sort of periods of rehearsing your moves, just like you go on to the training field in a game of football and you rehearse your moves before the big match. We sit in a rehearsal room and rehearse our moves before our opening night.

When a footballer has the big match, we have our opening night which is when all the public come in to watch us, and the newspapers come and the critics come and then we have to perform under intense pressure on the big day.

And then the next day we wake up in the morning and read all about it in the newspapers and everyone gives their opinion on our performance. Similar isn't it?'

7 Why do we have to study Shakespeare in schools?

Shakespeare was probably our greatest playwright and, once you get into them, his plays are truly exciting and dramatic. However, he also helped to shape our language. You would be amazed by how many common phrases are actually quotes from Shakespeare plays and the way he talks about battles and fighting in his plays is just like the way that commentators talk about football. He also shaped the way we imagine plots and stories with an exciting build up and a final climax. Study Shakespeare and you'll learn about language and writing as well as enjoying the play.

8 Is Henry V a true story?

Yes and no. Shakespeare took the historical aspects of his plays from some imaginative historians who did not mind adding to the truth to make a better story. Then he added his own imaginative interpretation as well. However, it is true that Henry, before becoming king, led a wild life and did not get on well with his father. The siege of Harfleur and the battle of Agincourt were genuine events in the campaign and Henry V is remembered for establishing the idea of being a king - being responsible and feeling a sense of duty to your country - as opposed to being the leading noble in the land. In some ways, that made him the first 'modern' king.

9 Why is the 'conspiracy scene' so important in the play?

It is the scene where Henry shows that he is now a king with the responsibilities of kingship weighing on him. The conspirators, and Scroop in particular, are men he has grown up with. They are his friends but they have betrayed him. It would have been easy to be merciful, to banish them or to compromise with them but that would have called his ability to be king into question. So, they are executed. The audience sees their faces pale as they learn the news but Henry sees this too. It is one thing to renounce your old drinking chums but another to have people, powerful people you have liked and admired, killed on your behalf.

10 Why are so many of the speeches from Henry V so well known?

Although often performed in theatres, the play was not that well known until after the Second World War when the actor Laurence Olivier starred in a famous film version which, in its day, was an action-packed blockbuster. The way he delivered the great speeches echoed how Winston Churchill, Britain's wartime leader, had addressed the nation on radio and struck a chord with many people who vividly remembered the war and the need to make terrible sacrifices in the face of the Nazi threat. It made the play come to life for them in an extremely powerful way. Go to www.theplays.org/henryV to find the text online with supporting information.